Reproductive and Genetic Technology Policymaking and Citizenship Rights

Abstract

This chapter examines how lawmakers had to grapple with whether and how to regulate medically assisted reproduction after the 1988 Baby M court case in the United States propelled surrogate motherhood and related reproductive technologies onto the public policy stage. The chapter compares the public policy approaches of two countries, France and Germany, with the regulatory structures in the United States where the Baby M court case that garnered international attention took place. Specifically, the chapter provides an in-depth examination of the legal and historical contexts of each country's policy approaches in the form of existing national marriage, family, and adoption laws as well as policies regulating human reproduction. Lawmakers' task became even more pressing once citizens began using the court system and traveled abroad to either gain access to proscribed technologies or use them for a lesser fee elsewhere. As a result, Germany developed one of the most restrictive national laws in the world while France established certain legal proscriptions, which are still more far-reaching than the regulatory structures in the United States. Along the way, this developing policy area contributed to the creation of international frameworks governing medically assisted reproduction and the development of national bioethics advisory councils.

Citation

Reineke, S. (2022), "Reproductive and Genetic Technology Policymaking and Citizenship Rights", Wohlers, T. and Fletcher, A. (Ed.) Biopolitics at 50 Years (Research in Biopolitics, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2042-994020220000013010